The entire group turned toward Noah once the black hole condensed inside his body. His figure reappeared inside the void, but his appearance left them quite surprised.
Noah's figure was glowing. Dark-purple energy covered his skin and made him shine among the darkness of the void.
That glow trembled since his entire body shook due to the immense power that it was trying to contain. The absorption had started, but the black hole was still purifying and spreading energy through his insides, so his tissues never managed to relax.
The experts instinctively took a step back. Noah appeared about to blow, and they didn't want to be in his range. The desire to help him didn't make them reckless either, so they remained in their spot and waited for him to do something.
"Elbas!" Noah roared while a wave of flames came out of his mouth. "Take out a big training area."
Noah was so full of energy that even a slight movement would activate techniques. The simple gesture of opening his mouth had released a sea of black flames meant to disperse part of the immense power accumulated in his insides. Still, the attack didn't manage to achieve much since the black hole promptly sent more energy to the lungs when it sensed that they had some free spots.
"I can't even begin to count the many things that could go wrong," King Elbas honestly replied. "We would even deplete our stashes if we start cultivating here."
Noah snorted and placed a hand on his glowing chest. The massive corpse of the jellyfish flowed out of his body and appeared next to him.
The black hole had prioritized the absorption of raw energy since the jellyfish's true power came from it. Yet, the creature's corpse had ended up inside Noah's separate space when the black hole condensed.
The corpse had lost most of its superficial skin, but it was still an immense rank 9 material. It contained enough power to fuel rank 8 items for entire millennia.
Noah didn't need King Elbas to add anything. He already knew that the portable training area could feed on the jellyfish's energy to show its effects. He threw the corpse directly at him and waited for the habitation to appear in his vision.
The magical beasts were about to go crazy, but Alexander suddenly gave voice to a high-pitched cry that made all of them shut up. Meanwhile, Wilfred stepped forward to catch the creature, and King Elbas followed him before performing a series of inspections on the corpse.
"Gather up!" King Elbas shouted while pointing toward Noah. "We'll take a break from the mission now."
Doubts inevitably appeared among the experts. Even some of Noah's core group didn't see the connection between the corpse and the years left for the mission.
However, none of them gave voice to questions. Even the magical beasts remained silent while the entire group moved toward Noah's position.
King Elbas waved his hand toward the void once the group was close enough. A golden light flashed among the blackness before a huge mansion materialized in front of the experts.
A peak rank 8 aura filled the void and left all the experts astonished at the sheer beauty and size of the item. The mansion consisted of a series of large buildings connected by an intricate array of corridors and surrounded by a tall defensive wall. It
The mansion resembled a small town rather than a single building, but King Elbas couldn't waste time feeling proud about those astonished gazes. He shot toward the central structure and snapped his fingers before gesturing to Wilfred to drop the corpse.
Wilfred threw the corpse toward the designated spot, and the creature vanished when it touched the side of the central structure. The entirety of the mansion became brighter at that point, but King Elbas made sure to tone that glow down to preserve energy.
"You can go in," King Elbas announced. "The mansion will send you toward specific areas that I've previously assigned to all of you. You might have complaints about my decision, but I want to remind you that I can choose to make your habitations detonate."
Everyone noted in their minds not to disturb King Elbas before approaching the mansion and disappearing once they touched its golden walls.
"Do you need a hand?" King Elbas asked once he remained alone.
Noah snorted before flying slowly toward the mansion. Cracks opened on its walls when Noah touched them, but the teleport activated anyway. A golden hall that featured countless inscriptions soon appeared in his vision and autonomously deployed a series of defensive shields on its surfaces.
The hall had reacted to Noah's dangerous aura. He was a being packed with the energy of a rank 9 creature. Those precautions were necessary.
Noah disregarded the many tools that the hall had to offer and sat on a praying mat placed at the center of the aura to handle the energy that filled his everything.
'I can't avoid the breakthroughs,' Noah concluded after a quick inspection of his state.
The rank 9 creature had given him enough fuel to push his dantian and body to the last step of the eighth rank, but that growth would trigger an immense pulling force that could endanger the mansion.
Noah knew that King Elbas would use the rank 9 corpse as fuel for the mansion, but he didn't know if the structure could hold with the entirety of the group in its insides.
'Oh well,' Noah eventually laughed in his mind. 'I guess he'll just make a new one if I break it.'
Noah closed his eyes and began to focus on the procedure. He had energy outside, on the other side, and inside all his tissues. His flesh had an exorbitant amount of primary energy, while his dantian had fully expanded, but he was forcing it to avoid the breakthrough.
However, the suppression had to end now. Noah removed the restraints and let his centers of power advance on their own, even if he helped with the compression of his dantian since he preferred to face that organ first.
The dantian had already reached its limits, and its walls were even full of energy. It only took a few hours for the organ to start squeezing the liquid darkness and forcing it to transform into a sword-shaped black crystal that radiated a dark light.
The organ still had energy even after the breakthrough, so Noah experienced a second increase of his cultivation level, even if far less substantial.
His aura exploded outward as his level stabilized in the solid stage. Noah had finally reached the last stage of the eighth rank, but he didn't have time to test his growth just yet since he still needed to take care of his body.
Noah delayed the breakthrough of his body on purpose to let the black hole improve after the advance of the dantian. The new darkness filled the fourth center of power with currents of dark matter that resembled the solid ones gained through his ambition, but they were still a bit weaker than them.
However, the black hole didn't have only one valid ability now. It could deploy the workshop, purify, check Noah's body, and ensure that everything went well better than before without requiring any external force.
Noah relied on the new features to make use of some of the energy attached to his skin before deploying the dark world and letting his body advance. The dark world knew that he didn't want to waste time, so there was a high chance that the hibernation wouldn't last for too long.